Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has told an inquiry
into the 2003 invasion of Iraq that he privately assured George Bush,
the US president at the time, that "you can count on us", eight months
before the war.

While Blair stopped short of saying he had promised Bush
unconditional military support in early 2002, as critics claim, he said
he had always agreed that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, had
to be dealt with.

"I accept entirely I was going to be with America in handling this,"
he told the London inquiry into Britain's role in the Iraq war,
describing conversations between himself and Bush in summer 2002.

"What I was saying to President Bush was very clear and simple, you
can count on us, we are going to be with you in tackling this. But there
are difficulties."

The private note to Bush remain secrets, despite calls for it to be
published by John Chilcot, the inquiry chairman and a former civil
servant.

'Up for it'

The timing of the decision for military action is an important issue
for opponents of the war, who accuse Blair and Bush of being set on
invasion regardless of its legality or whether it had backing from the
UN.

Blair, who sent 45,000 British troops as part of the US-led invasion
in March 2003, was making his second appearance at the inquiry after
being recalled to clarify evidence he gave at a hearing in January last
year.

He repeated his message from his first appearance that the September
11, 2001, attacks on the US had changed the calculus of risk, meaning
they had to deal with Saddam as he posed a threat to the world and was
refusing to comply with the UN.

Facing a far more forensic probe of decisions he had taken, Blair
said regime change in Iraq was on the cards immediately after the
September 11 attacks unless Saddam changed tack.

"If it became the only way to deal with this issue then we were going
to be up for it," Blair said, adding he had persuaded Bush to seek UN
backing.

Advice disregarded

A statement he gave to the inquiry also revealed he had disregarded
advice from the government's top lawyer, given in January 2003, warning
an invasion of Iraq would be illegal without a specific UN resolution.

Peter Goldsmith, the attorney general, only changed his mind shortly
before the invasion, and Blair said he viewed the earlier advice as
"provisional" and believed it would change when Goldsmith became aware
of the UN negotiations.

The decision to go to war was one of the most controversial episodes
of Blair's 10-year premiership which ended in 2007, leading to massive
protests and accusations he had deliberately misled the public over the
reasons for the invasion.

Alistair Campbell, Blair's former communications chief and one of his
closest advisers until he resigned in late 2003, said people still felt
angry about the war.

"Some people who actually really liked Tony Blair when he became
prime minister ... they will never forgive him for Iraq," he told Sky
News.

The inquiry, which began in November 2009, was set up by Blair's
successor Gordon Brown to learn lessons from the conflict and is not
designed to assign guilt or blame to any individual.

Hostility over Iraq continues to dog Blair, 57, now an envoy for the
Quartet of Middle East peacemakers - the US, Russia, the European Union
and the UN.

Further

Surrounded by a massive police presence, the country's top law enforcement official told a group of carefully screened students at Georgetown's Law School that, "In this great land, the government does not tell you what to think or what to say." In his speech, only announced the day before, Sessions went on to denounce uppity knee-taking football players and defend his boss' call, hours before, for them to be fired. We may need to upgrade the ole Irony Alert buzzer. It can't keep up.